State goes after doctor's license for naming patients in defamation suit

Regulators suspended his license indefinitely last year after he was accused of fondling a patient

August 14, 2013|By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter

(Tribune illustration)

State regulators are seeking to suspend or revoke a Crystal Lake doctor's medical license for revealing the names of former patients in lawsuits he filed against them.

Dr. Mahesh Parikh sued the patients for defamation this month over their allegations that he fondled them, which he denies.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation filed a complaint Tuesday against Parikh, seeking further disciplinary action beyond the indefinite suspension he received last year as a result of the claims of one of the patients. Parikh is seeking to get his license back.

At a disciplinary hearing, that patient testified that he touched her breasts and vaginal area under her clothes in 2009.

Parikh filed defamation lawsuits against the woman and her mother. He also sued two other patients who, according to Parikh's lawsuits against them, contacted regulators with similar allegations against him following the suspension of his license.

Parikh is seeking more than $5 million in damages from each of the women, plus an injunction to keep them from making statements against him, particularly at his upcoming hearing for reinstatement.

According to the new complaint against Parikh, regulators now charge that he violated the state Medical Practice Act through his lawsuits by naming the patients, when they were treated and their medical conditions.

The doctor's attorney, Rishi Agrawal, said he had made a request with Cook County Circuit Court to refile the lawsuits with just the initials of the defendants rather than their names.

Some of the information, he said, was already available in transcripts of the department's hearings into the matter. The law also provides an exception to doctor-patient confidentiality, he said, for litigation.

"A doctor certainly has the right to defend himself," he said.

Parikh's disciplinary case will be decided by Jay Stewart, director of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, who previously suspended Parikh, overruling the findings of an administrative law judge. If the department finds Parikh violated the Medical Practice Act, he could face fines of $10,000 for each violation.

Susan Hofer, a spokeswoman for the department, said the Medical Practice Act specifically prohibits breaching patient confidentiality and protects patients from civil liability if they make a complaint with the department.